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Project Pinwheel

Bringing together fine and practical art, we aim to create a giant moving sculpture vehicle from 100% found/recycled/donated materials, COVERED IN PINWHEELS from people like you! It will act as transportation, art exhibit and home to us for one week as we display it in the summer, when we plan to debut it at BURNING MAN 2012.

The pinwheel is an open-ended template. It is a blank slate waiting to be filled with photos, prose, secrets, or any other artwork. We encourage you to put anything you want on your square sheet of paper, as long as it can go through the mail. By inviting the audience not only to have a say but a hand in the matter we aim to bring the power of the message back to the people.

Creativity, Community and Inspiration

Our project is based around a shared belief in these three ideals

Creativity- Art is a reflection of our time and our culture, traditionally created by one person- an artist. But today with the rise of new technology that allows us to connect and share easier than ever, with crowd sourcing and social networking, we believe it provides a golden oppertunity for people to stand up speak for themselves. It is in this way we hope to encourage individual creativity. Art for the people by the people.

Community- As people speak up and share their art, their stories, their secrets, we begin to see a global community linked by their faith in self-expression and working together. People at our workshops, which will be help in specific locales across the country, will also connect with their fellow artists in the area. Each participant becomes a part of our team, spanning across the globe as the network of friends, relatives, co-workers, and interested individuals expands.

Inspiration- We aim to create a monument to what is possible with the power of self-expression and community, all while being enviromentally responcible. Each pinwheel represents the voice of a person, each moving and spinning together as a community, and we will bring back the spirit of it back through the documentary. Our car also fully complies with the Ten Principles of Burning Man (see them under Our Project)

How to Participate

We have currently raised over 4000 dollars and have been featured in numerous publications as well as TV, so we are onto the next phase of our project.

What is most important now is gathering as many pinwheels from as many places around the world as we can! We are looking for people of all ages and ability to contribute their voice! You can find instructions on making a pinwheel as well as a template under our Template Tab! You can also view and share their own creations online on our Pinwheels Tab, which we will update as we recieve them, and also take part in their collective journey though the desert through photos and film.

If you are interested in donating, money recieved would go towards reaching out to even more people and possibly a trailer, as we probably need to tow some of sculpture. we are still accepting pledges, which will be rewarded with various options from postcards of the finished sculpture to the Documentary DVD! You can find it all under the Donate Tab!

We would like to officially welcome out new member Alex Lee to the Project Pinwheel Team!

Alex is also a freshman at the Rhode Island School of Design and is majoring in Film and Video, and will be contributing his high spirits, spacial thinking and cinematography skills to the project. Alex will also be taking over the shooting and producing of the Project Pinwheel Documentary from Denali Schmidt, who unfortunately cannot join us for the rest of our project due to personal obligations, but will be offering her support from home in New Mexico as we start the next phase of our project. We are very excited to have Alex on board and we look forward to beginning construction of the Art Car soon!

Last Wednesday Josh Shiau held an workshop at the Chelmsford Public Library presenting the project and helping participants make their own pinwheels. We saw people of all ages and occupations come in and share their creativity and personal stories, making for a great summer kickoff for Project Pinwheel!

We have a total of 10 pinwheels come in from the event and a generous donation of $200 from the Chelmsford Friends of the Library.

*Art Workshop for Adults* -* *Project Pinwheel*
*with Joshua Shiau from the Rhode Island School of Design*
*Thursday, May 31, at 7:00 p.m.*

*A chance for your art to attend the Burning Man Festival in the **Black
Rock** Desert this August!

*Josh will be in the Chelmsford Public Library in Massachusetts tomorrow

from 7 to 9 giving a short presentation on how far the project has come and
our new team, as well as supplying tools and materials with which to make
your own pinwheels with!

"We are looking for experienced and novice artists to design pinwheels.
Your pinwheel will become part of a giant Art Car - “Pinwheel Project” -

that will travel to the *Burning Man Festival 2012*. Create your pinwheel

and then track its path online as it travels across country to participate
in the 2012 Burning Man Festival. Craft materials and templates will be
supplied at the Library workshop on May 31st; feel free to bring flat,
lightweight objects from home to embellish your pinwheel. More details at

Make Big Dreams is awarding $3000 in prizes to 5 student winners. Everyone is invited to come to the event and tickets for voting will be given the first 100 people. Each ticket counts as vote for the prize winners. Find out more.

RISD Make Big Dreams is student-run and sponsored by RISD Career Services, Center for Student Involvement, Resident Life Office, and RISD Dining.

Come visit us in the Upper Quad at RISD-
talk to the team
see the prototype
vote for us to help us win $1000 for a trailer and more supplies!

Last night at 7 pm Pacific our project went into the review process at the Burning Man DMV. The board reviews the applications proposing mutant vehicles to ensure that they match up to the expectations of burning man-- community, creativity, sustainability.

We rocked it!

Next we show it off to their DMV Hotties in person once we get to the Playa to confirm safety and eccentricity.

The official words that brought us so much joy:
"This is an invitation to bring your Mutant Vehicle to Burning Man 2012 for on-playa inspection.."

After weeks of preperation, today we submitted our Kickstarter proposal! Kickstarter is a website that allows people to share their project ideas with the world and allows viewers to pledge money to help fund the project. When kickstarter.com approves us, we'll be able to raise money for construction and transportation costs!